Young Teen Favorites Mystery

Location

Author

Title

Year

YA CAB

Cabot, Meg

When Lightning Strikes

2001

Jess Mastriani has never been what you'd call a typical Midwestern teenager—her extracurricular activities, instead of cheerleading or 4-H, include fist-fights with the football team and month-long stints in detention. A part of Jess would like to be the prom queen her mother has always envisioned her being, but another part is secretly counting the days until she's saved up enough money to buy her own Harley.Then something happens that guarantees Jess will be one of the in-crowd...at least until her newfound talent ends up getting her dead.

There's a hot guy in Susannah Simon's bedroom. Too bad he's a ghost. Suze is a mediator-a liaison between the living and the dead. In other words, she sees dead people. And they won't leave her alone until she helps them resolve their unfinished business with the living. But Jesse, the hot ghost haunting her bedroom, doesn't seem to need her help. Which is a relief, because Suze has just moved to sunny California and plans to start fresh, with trips to the mall instead of the cemetery, and surfing instead of spectral visitations. But the very first day at her new school, Suze realizes it's not that easy. There's a ghost with revenge on her mind - and Suze happens to be in the way.

Science Fair: a story of mystery, danger, international suspense, and a very nervous frog

2008

Grdankl the Strong, president of Kprshtskan, is plotting to take over the American government. His plan is to infiltrate the science fair at Hubble Middle School, located in a Maryland suburb just outside Washington. The rich kids at Hubble cheat by buying their projects every year, and Grdankl's cronies should have no problem selling them his government-corrupting software. But this year, Toby Harbinger, a regular kid with Discount Warehouse shoes, is determined to win the $5,000 prize-even if he has to go up against terrorists to do it.

YA CAP

Cappo, Nan Willard

Cheating Lessons

2003

Bernadette Terrell has always known the right thing to do. Not the most popular girl in school, her focus has always been on academic, not social, success. When her favorite teacher names her to Wickham High School's state championship quiz bowl team, she believes that she has reached the pinnacle of her high school academic career. However, her elation quickly fades as she begins to suspect that perhaps someone cheated to get Wickham into the contest and is cheating still.

YA CAR

Carman, Patrick

Skeleton Creek

2009

Strange things are happening in Skeleton Creek . . . and Ryan and Sarah are trying to get to the heart of it. But after an eerie accident leaves Ryan housebound and forbidden to see Sarah, their investigation takes two tracks: Ryan records everything in his journal, while Sarah uses her video camera to search things out...and then email the clips for Ryan to see.

YA DOW

Dowd, Siobhan

The London Eye Mystery

2007

Ted and Kat watched their cousin Salim board the London Eye. But after half an hour it landed and everyone trooped off except Salim. Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air? Ted and his older sister, Kat, become sleuthing partners, since the police are having no luck. Despite their prickly relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. And ultimately it comes down to Ted, whose brain works in its own very unique way, to find the key to the mystery.

YA FEI

Feinstein, John

Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery

2006

Steven Thomas is one of two lucky winners of the U.S. Basketball Writer's Association's contest for aspiring journalists. His prize? A trip to New Orleans and a coveted press pass for the Final Four. It's a basketball junkie's dream come true! But the games going on behind the scenes between the coaches, the players, the media, the money-men, and the fans turn out to be even more fiercely competitive than those on the court. Steven and his fellow winner, Susan Carol Anderson, are nosing around the Superdome and overhear what sounds like a threat to throw the championship game. Now they have just 48 hours to figure out who is blackmailing one of MSU's star players . . . and why.

YA FER

Ferraiolo, Jack D.

The Big Splash

2009

Matt Stevens is a seventh-grade Sam Spade who attends a middle school with an organized crime ring run by Vinny Biggs and his goons. Biggs traffics in forgeries, stolen exams, and candy, and has his competition regularly put in the "Outs" with humiliating water-pistol stains to the pants. A kid in the Outs is outcast for life—so when Nikki Fingers, Biggs's most-feared former hit woman, is taken down by an unseen assailant, Matt is hired by both her sister, Jenny, and Biggs himself to find the culprit.

YA FUN

Funke, Cornelia

The Thief Lord

2002

Winter has come early to Venice. Two orphaned children are on the run, hiding among the crumbling canals and misty alleyways of the city. Befriended by a gang of street children and their mysterious leader, the Thief Lord, they shelter in an old, disused cinema. On their trail is a bungling detective, obsessed with disguises and the health of his pet tortoises. But a greater threat to the boys' new-found freedom is something from a forgotten past-a beautiful magical treasure with the power to spin time itself.

YA HAD

Haddix, Margaret Peterson

Found

2008

Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he's never thought it was any big deal. Then he and a new friend, Chip, who's also adopted, begin receiving mysterious letters. The first one says, "You are one of the missing." The second one says, "Beware! They're coming back to get you." Jonah, Chip, and Jonah's sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a vast smuggling operation, an airplane that appeared out of nowhere -- and people who seem to appear and disappear at will. The kids discover they are caught in a battle between two opposing forces that want very different things for Jonah and Chip's lives. Do Jonah and Chip have any choice in the matter? And what should they choose when both alternatives are horrifying?

YA HAH

Hahn, Mary Downing

All the Lovely Bad Ones: A Ghost Story

2008

Travis and his sister, Corey, can't resist a good trick. When they learn that their grandmother's quiet Vermont inn, where they're spending the summer, has a history of ghost sightings, they decide to do a little "haunting" of their own. Before long, their supernatural pranks have tourists flocking to the inn, and business booms.

But Travis and Corey soon find out that they aren't the only ghosts at Fox Hill Inn. Their thoughtless games have awakened something dangerous, something that should have stayed asleep. Can these siblings lay to rest the ghosts they’ve stirred?

YA HIG

Higson, Charles

Silverfin

2005

Thirteen year-old James Bond cannot wait to get away from Eton, his stuffy boarding school, and visit his aunt and uncle in the Highlands of Scotland. Upon arriving, he learns that a local boy, Alfie Kelly, has gone missing. James teams up with the boy's cousin, Red, to investigate the disappearance. The clues lead them to the castle of Lord Hellebore, a madman with a thirst for power.

[Also in the Young James Bond series: Blood Fever; Double or Die; Hurricane Gold; By Royal Command]

YA HOR

Horowitz, Anthony

The Falcon’s Malteser

1995

When the vertically-challenged Johnny Naples entrusts Tim Diamond with a package worth over three million pounds, he’s making a big mistake. Tim Diamond is the worst detective in the world. Next day, Johnny’s dead, Tim feels the heat, and his smart younger brother, Nick, gets the package—and every crook in town on his back!

[Also in the Diamond Brothers series: Public Enemy Number Two; South by South East; The French Confection; The Blurred Man; I Know What You Did Last Wednesday; The Greek Who Stole Christmas]

YA HOR

Horowitz, Anthony

Stormbreaker

2001

Nothing can prepare fourteen-year-old Alex for the news that the uncle he always thought he knew was really a spy for MI6— Britain’s top-secret intelligence agency. Recruited to find his uncle’s killers and complete his final mission, Alex suddenly finds himself caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Stephanie led a pretty quiet existence until her uncle died. Not only did he leave her his mansion, he left her a new best friend—Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton detective (sorry, a supernatural skeleton detective)—who waltzes into her life for keeps. Now she's acquiring magical powers, endangering her life to fight evil, and trading snappy comebacks with something without a body.

So much for her quiet existence.

[Also in the Skulduggery Pleasant series: Playing with Fire; The Faceless Ones; Dark Days; Mortal Coil]

YA JIN

Jinks, Catherine

Evil Genius

2005

Cadel Piggott has a genius IQ and a fascination with systems of all kinds. At seven, he was illegally hacking into computers. Now he’s fourteen and studying for his World Domination degree, taking classes like embezzlement, forgery, and infiltration at the institute founded by criminal mastermind Dr. Phineas Darkkon. Although Cadel may be advanced beyond his years, at heart he’s a lonely kid. When he falls for the mysterious and brilliant Kay-Lee, he begins to question the moral implications of his studies. But is it too late to stop Dr. Darkkon from carrying out his evil plot?

YA KON

Konigsburg, E.L.

Silent to the Bone

2001

Connor is sure his best friend, Branwell, couldn't have hurt Branwell's baby half sister, Nikki. But Nikki lies in a coma, and Branwell is in a juvenile behavioral center, suspected of a horrible crime and unable to utter the words to tell what really happened. Connor is the only one who might be able to break through Branwell's wall of silence. But how can he prove Branwell didn't commit the unspeakable act of which he's accused -- when Branwell can't speak for himself?

YA MAC

Mack, Tracy

The Fall of the Amazing Zalindas

2006

If you have not heard about the world's most brilliant crime solver of all time, the consulting detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, you have undoubtedly spent your years beneath a large rock -- for much has been written about him. Those familiar with Mr. Holmes know that a gang of homeless boys, called the Baker Street Irregulars, assisted him in his crime solving.

When a murder at the circus unravels another, far more treacherous crime, the master detective and the boys of the BSI must pursue terrifying villains to solve this mystery, dodging danger at every turn...

[Also in the Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars series: Mystery of the Conjured Man]

YA MAD

Madison, Bennett

Lulu Dark and the Summer of the Fox

2006

The last thing Lulu Dark needs is a mystery getting in the way of her Important Summer Plans (which include snacking, sunbathing, and trash TV). But when Lulu’s mother, B-list celebrity Isabelle Dark, drops into town to shoot a movie, Lulu gets just that. Isabelle disappears, and despite her mother’s reputation for flakiness, Lulu has a hunch she’s in real trouble. Especially when she finds a note among Isabelle’s things from a mysterious figure known only as The Fox. Lulu must cross paths with a teen screen queen, a dodgy director, and a fleet of muscle-bound maids before she finds her mom and uncovers The Fox’s true identity.

YA MCD

McDonald, Joyce

Shades of Simon Gray

2002

Simon Gray is the ideal teenager — smart, reliable, hardworking, trustworthy. Or is he? After Simon crashes his car into The Liberty Tree, another portrait starts to emerge. Soon an investigation has begun into computer hacking at Simon’s high school, for it seems tests are being printed out before they are given. Could Simon be involved? Simon, meanwhile, is in a coma — but is this another appearance that may be deceiving? For inside his own head, Simon can walk around and talk to some people. He even seems to be having a curious conversation with a man who was hung for murder 200 years ago, in the branches of the same tree Simon crashed into.

YA MIL

Miller, Kirsten

Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City

2006

Life will never be the same for Ananka Fishbein after she ventures into an enormous sinkhole near her New York City apartment. A million rats, delinquent Girl Scouts out for revenge, and a secret city below the streets of Manhattan combine in this remarkable novel about a darker side of New York City you have only just begun to know about.

[Sequel: The Empress’ Tomb]

YA PER

Peretti, Frank E.

Hangman’s Curse

2000

In this gripping mystery/adventure, three popular student athletes lie in an incoherent coma with the loss of muscle coordination, severe paranoia, and hallucinations. It's whispered that they're victims of Abel Frye--a curse that's haunted the school since a student died there in the 1930s. Now the curse is spreading, and students are running scared. Elijah and Elisha Springfield, teenage twins, have to find the truth at Baker High School fast, or Abel Frye and his crawling minions will make this the final exam for the Veritas Project.

[Sequel: Nightmare Academy]

YA PRI

Priestly, Chris

Death and the Arrow

2004

Fifteen-year-old Tom Marlowe, and the rest of London, is fascinated by a string of murders: People are being killed with arrows shot from above, and each victim has a “Death and Arrow” card with him. Danger and intrigue abound, especially when Tom’s friend, a young pickpocket, is also found murdered. But who would want to kill Will? To avenge his friend, Tom sets out with Dr. Harker, a family friend and retired adventurer, to discover who is behind these seemingly unsolvable murders. Unbeknownst to them, they’re caught up in a dangerous web of murder and deception that began years before in the American colonies with a massacre of the Mohawk tribe.

YA RUN

Runholt, Susan

The Mystery of the Third Lucretia

2008

If it hadn’t been for Lucas’s photographic memory, they might not have remembered the man. It had been almost a year since she and Kari had noticed him copying the famous Rembrandt painting in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. But now in the National Gallery in London, they’re sure it’s the same guy, copying another Rembrandt. What is going on? The International Herald Tribune gives them their answer. A never-before seen Rembrandt painting has been discovered in Amsterdam. The mysterious man must’ve been working on a forgery! Convinced that no one will believe them without more evidence, the teenage sleuths embark on a madcap adventure to find the forger. But is bringing the criminal to justice worth the price of their lives?

YA SMI

Smith, Roland

Independence Hall

2008

Fame has arrived for rockers Blaze and Roger! Just married, leaving Los Angeles, and touring the United States with teenagers Q (Quest) and Angela in tow, the excitement heightens in Philadelphia when Angela realizes she’s being followed. Q soon learns the secret about Angela’s real mother, a former Secret Service Agent.

[Sequel: Storm Runners]

YA TAY

Taylor, G.P.

The First Escape

2008

At Isambard Dunstan's School for Wayward Children, life is trouble for 14-year-old identical twins Sadie and Saskia Dopple and their friend, former thief Erik Morrisey Ganger. But what starts out as a perfectly normal day of food fights, rioting classmates, fires and (yawn) threats of expulsion goes suddenly and horribly wrong when a mysterious, wealthy woman appears at the school and adopts Saskia...without her sister. On her own in a mansion full of dark secrets, Saskia stumbles upon a conspiracy that threatens her very life.

[Also in the Dopple Ganger Chronicles: The Secret of Indigo Moon; The Great Mogul Diamond]

YA THI

Riordan, Rick

The Maze of Bones

2008

What would happen if you discovered that your family was one of the most powerful in human history? What if you were told that the source of the family's power was hidden around the world in the form of 39 clues? What if you were given a choice - take a million dollars and walk away ...or get the first clue and begin the search? At the reading of their grandmother's will, Dan and Amy are given this choice - and they take the clue. Immediately, they are caught in a dangerous race against their own family members.

[Also in the 39 Clues series: One False Note; The Sword Thief; Beyond the Grave; The Black Circle; In Too Deep; The Viper's Nest; The Emperor's Code; Storm Warning; Into The Gauntlet; Vespers Rising.]

YA VOI

Voigt, Cynthia

The Vandemark Mummy

1991

Phineas and Althea's father receives an unexpected appointment as curator of a collection of Egyptian antiquities, including one mummy. When the mummy is stolen, Phineas and Althea find themselves involved in a mystery that quickly escalates to kidnapping and attempted murder.